Montco commissioners hear pleas to not cut budgets
The Montgomery County Commissioners inched closer to solving their historic budget crisis - which could see programs eliminated, some 500 people laid off and taxes raised up to 28 percent - after listening to pleas for more money from department heads.
Most of the administrators said they could not live with five to 11 percent cuts needed to close a $44.5 million budget gap. County President Judge Richard Hodgson said such cuts to the courts' budget would bring the court system "to its knees."
"There simply are not further areas that can be reduced," he said of the courts, which will have 23 judges next year.
It was the first budget hearing since Commissioner James R. Matthews, 62, was indicted by a grand jury for purportedly lying to a grand jury regarding corruption in county government.
Following his Dec. 6 arrest, Matthews resigned as chairman and was replaced by Joseph M. Hoeffel III, who was also cited in the report for meeting with Matthews in private to discuss county business before they voted at public meetings.
In recent years the two had formed a bipartisan alliance against the third man on the panel, Bruce L. Castor Jr., the former district attorney. Castor, who has fought bitterly with Matthews, appeared happy with the new dynamic.
The report also criticized the county government which it alleged often ignored its own procurement policies, recklessly spent taxpayer money and rewarded political cronies.
Matthews said little at the meeting other than to repeat his vow not to vote for any budget cuts. His proposal would require a 28 percent tax increase, or about $120 for the average household a year.
"We've been on a tax holiday for 120 months," he said, referring to the county's streak of not raising taxes. "That's an average of $1 a month."
Without it, he warned, entire departments such as county parks would be eliminated, and revered institutions such as the Elmwood Park Zoo and the Norristown Library could be closed.
But his colleagues had other ideas. Still, they listened to department leaders beg, cajole and, at least in one case, badger them for more money.
Hodgson said his department had requested a nearly half million dollar raise in its budget, but he conceded that keeping funding at 2011 levels rather than chopping "would stave off dire consequences."
And so it went, as person after person pleaded with the commissioners to put away the budget ax. A few said they could live with a five percent cut but not a penny more.
"We'll have to go with (Commissioner Bruce) Castor's suggestion that we outlaw dying on the weekends," said Dr. Walter Hoffman, the county coroner, when asked how his department would fare with a leaner budget. The only way they could get by was to raise the cost of cremations, he said.
The most desperate was Clerk of Courts Ann Thornburg Weiss who said a five percent cut meant she would have to lay off employees and "I can't do that and continue to run a functioning Clerk of Courts office.
She said her office had been understaffed for four years resulting in a "significant, unacceptable backlog."
It all seemed to fall on deaf ears.
The three-man panel held fast to their starting positions with Matthews saying he wouldn't even discuss any budget cuts, Hoeffel looking to cut spending five percent and raise taxes about 11 percent; and Castor, the only commissioner who will serve on the newly elected board taking office in January, wanting to give the new commissioners the final say. Beyond Caster, the new board will be made up of Democrats Josh Shapiro and Leslie Richards.
Castor suggested a fourth option to the three budgets now on the table - cutting spending five percent for all mandated departments and programs and funding the others at 2011 levels for the first three months of the year, so that the new board could then amend it.